


Mother

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: LAOFT Extras [28]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Implied Flashbacks, M/M, Panic Attacks, Virgil's mom is Real Goddamn Spooky but she's not malicious, borderline horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 18:48:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19818343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: Virgil’s mother has a wide variety of reactions to people besides Virgil. Curiosity is one.Gentle isnot.





	Mother

**Author's Note:**

> a prompt from nonnie over on tumblr: 
> 
> "Does Virgil's mother get better after Virgil takes over? If so do you think he would introduce her to his boyfriend(s)? (Depending on how long it took)"
> 
> This was supposed to be fluff (still is, a little, but c'est la vie)

Virgil was an idiot.

The one – _one –_ time he truly _needed_ to be hyper-vigilant, and he wasn’t paying even the slightest attention.

The thing was, Mother had been all but silent.

She was breathing, definitely, the pulse of her stronger with every passing day, but as far as actually communicating with him? Nothing. She didn’t reach out for him, and she didn’t respond to anything he sent her way.

Weeks of it, and then months – it was nearly fall now, and _Virgil_ felt fine, strength wise, but still – nothing.

He would wonder if she hadn’t had some kind of permanent damage done to her, but it was hard to get a sense of what was wrong when he couldn’t _talk_ to her.

It was _really fucking frustrating_.

In hindsight, it should have been obvious.

Patton asking if Virgil had a nightmare, and, when pressed, explaining that the shadows around the room had been moving rather violently. The thing was, Virgil _had_ been having a nightmare, so he hadn’t made the connection.

Roman showing up to a date mildly snappish, asking if Virgil intended to tell him at any point that he was having Roman tailed. Virgil’s flare of panic at the thought an Unseelie was following Roman convinced him fairly quickly that it hadn’t been Virgil, and he’d ended up _apologizing_ , and saying there was every chance he’d imagined it anyway. Virgil wasn’t convinced, but he was still only on the look out for another fae.

Logan’s was far more subtle, and so even easier to dismiss. He was tired, constantly. He explained that it was normal, that he got somewhat lethargic in the winter months but that it was not unmanageable. Now that he and his parents understood the situation better, they’d gotten him a sun lamp, and it seemed to be helping.

So he said, anyway, because it didn’t seem to be helping when he was around _Virgil_ – Logan ended nearly every date asleep, curled into Roman or Virgil’s chest or with his face buried in Patton’s hair.

He wasn’t quite there yet – they were in Roman’s living room, with Roman and Patton still occupying the blanket fort at the foot of the couch Virgil and Logan sat on. Virgil was helping Logan with his homework.

Well. For given definition of helping.

“A rubber duck?” said Virgil flatly.

“Yes,” said Logan, “The programmers explain the code to the duck, and in doing so it helps them find the error,”

“And in this metaphor, you want me to be the duck,”

“If you have academic background in Chemistry I would be happy to accept your assistance in that format. Otherwise – yes, dear, I would appreciate if you would be a figurative rubber duck for a few minutes,”

Which was how Virgil ending up sitting cross-legged across from Logan, nodding and humming occasionally like he had the faintest idea what Logan was talking about, while Logan chattered away about rodents for some reason.

Virgil was _supposed_ to be being quiet, to be fair – but it still took him far too long to notice how slowly Logan was speaking.

“L?” he prompted.

Logan shook himself.

“Apologies,” he said, “I-”

He swayed, blinking rapidly.

“…s-sorry,” he slurred.

“Logan, what’s wrong?”

Logan considered for almost a full three seconds.

“I do not know,” he said, “But I- I do not feel… optimal,”

The room was still quiet, unnervingly so, and Virgil suddenly _needed_ to have all three of them in arms reach, because something was _wrong_ but he couldn’t figure out what – there was no foreign presence he could detect.

“Ro, Pat?” he said, “Can you come up here?”

No response. The blanket fort didn’t move.

Virgil lurched forward, alarmed, and stripped the blanket of the top of the fort.

His stomach dropped.

Patton was sobbing, his shoulders shaking with it, but he had both hands clamped so tightly over his mouth he was dead silent. Roman, who normally would be responding to such a visual with comfort or some sort of grand declaration or even a joke, was instead almost totally blank-faced, his eyes glassy and unfocused.

“Patton, Roman!”

Virgil clamored off the couch, pulling both of them until they were sitting up; Patton huddled up against him instantly, like he could hide in Virgil’s clothes. Roman-

Roman went without any resistance. He didn’t come any closer – he stopped exactly where Virgil stopped moving him. And then he smiled up at him, his eyes completely unseeing. Virgil’s stomach rolled.

Logan mumbled something that might have been one of their names, moving to slip on to the floor with them, but his arms gave out as he did so and he collapsed on the rug.

Virgil was well and truly panicked now, because something was _clearly wrong_ – but there wasn’t anybody _here._ No fae in the forest could _possibly_ hide from him while he was looking this intently, and May was gone – there was nobody in the house but Patton, Roman, and Logan except for Virgil himself.

And Virgil _could_ do this, if he was particularly incensed, but obviously he _wasn’t_ , and it couldn’t be-

Except maybe it could.

Virgil moved his search from around the room to the immediate vicinity, focused on the other three boys, and then he found it.

Shadows, curled around them – Logan’s ankle, Patton’s wrist, Roman’s shoulder. Searching. _Curious_.

“ _ **Get off them,”** _he snarled

The closest one, Patton’s, recoiled, before slowly creeping back around.

“ _ **I said get OFF,**_ ”

He reached into the shadow, yanking, and it came loose. He scrambled to pull them all off, and then with a swipe of his hand turned every light in the house on.

It didn’t hurt her, but it did startle her pretty well, and she retreated a few feet away. The ring of shadow around them rippled, and Virgil tried to get his own breathing under control.

“Patton, love,” he murmured, “It’s alright. Everything will be fine,”

He brought them all closer again – and tried to swallow the lump in his throat when Roman went perfectly pliant again. He ran his hands over Patton’s arms, speaking soft and even, until Logan started to rouse and Patton responded to his voice and Roman’s eyes started to focus, just barely.

Every so often he shooed Mother’s creeping shadows back again. He didn’t think he’d ever been so upset with her.

“Was’appening?” mumbled Logan.

“Hi,” breathed Virgil, running his hand down Logan’s cheek, “I, uh- I’m sorry,”

Logan raised a groggy, confused eyebrow at him.

“ _Virgil,_ ” Patton sobbed, and it seemed to wake Logan up that last little bit. He leaned towards them and pushed Patton’s hair back, and then reached across them and tapped Roman gently on the hand.

“Roman, dear?” he said, “Can you hear me?”

Roman didn’t respond, but he was blinking rapidly and looking between the three of them, like he was trying to make sense of what he was seeing.

“There you are,” said Virgil quietly.

Roman worked his jaw a little.

“… Here I am,” he said quietly, and Virgil slumped in relief.

“W-what-”

Patton sniffed.

“What just h-happened?”

Virgil scowled.

“About that,” he muttered.

He turned a little toward the shadow and gestured.

“My mother,” he said dryly, “Does not have a very good sense of boundaries,”

“I thought your mother was still sick?” said Logan.

“So did I,”

The shadow rippled and Roman recoiled slightly.

“Why did she do that to us? Is she angry?” said Patton anxiously.

“No,” huffed Virgil, “She was just- just looking at you, she probably didn’t mean to. She isn’t exactly… delicate,”

Patton shuffled a little, turning towards the closest edge of the ring around them.

“Uh, hello, Ms, um. Ma’am,”

The shadow slowly moved forward, and Virgil reached out so she didn’t have to come any closer and touched her with his fingertips.

She still couldn’t seem to speak, but she was absolutely burning with curiosity. He poked at it a little, and it unfolded – flashes of the four of them together, all of them, or in pairs, as well as separately. Roman chasing goblins out of his vegetable garden, Patton learning a fae tune from White, Logan amusing his brother by bending a sunbeam into shapes like a balloon.

 _Are you kidding,_ Virgil asked her, _You could have asked. You hurt them, and now they’re afraid._

No words, still, but Virgil got the impression she was baffled by his line of reasoning. Whether it was the concept of “asking” or that she’d hurt them that was confusing her, he had no idea.

“She wanted to meet you, basically,” said Virgil.

It was a little more like she wanted to _inspect_ them, but luckily for Virgil it was about the same thing as far as Mother was concerned.

“That was quite the ‘meet-the-parents’ introduction,” joked Roman, though his voice was still a little shaky, “And I thought Mamaw was scary,”

He nodded his head at the extended length of the shadow, the one Virgil was touching.

“Hello, Ma’am. Nice to meet you,”

There was a burst of amusement, and a flicker of an image of Roman just minutes ago, radiating fear that Virgil had been too distracted to get a good look at but Mother had felt just fine. He growled, and her amusement turned on him.

“What?” said Roman.

“She knows you’re lying, but she thinks it’s funny,”

Roman turned a little pink.

“Good evening, ma’am,” said Logan, a little woodenly.

More amusement, and this time the image was of Logan, and it was _now_. He was angry, though he was hiding it fairly well, a little burning core of heat in his chest that looked like a tiny sun to her. If she could coo, she probably would be. She thought it was _cute_.

 _Mother_ , he told her, as polite as he could manage while still feeling so irritated, _These are my loves. Please don’t touch them again. They’re not built for it._

He got the feeling she was rolling her eyes, but she did give them one last cursory examination before retreating, until the unnatural shadows sank back into the mundane ones of Roman’s living room and they were alone.

Virgil let out a long breath.

“ _That_ was your mom?” said Roman incredulously.

“Yeah,” said Virgil, “I’m sorry. Again,”

“I’m not gonna pretend that wasn’t unpleasant,” said Roman, “But also that explains _so much_ about you, frankly,”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“That the venomous apple doesn’t fall far from the terrifying lovecraftian tree,” said Roman, amused, pecking Virgil on the cheek.

Roman was mostly recovered, but Logan was still a little sleepy and Patton pretty shaken up. Virgil and Roman quickly reassembled the blanket fort and they all crammed into it. Logan briefly lamented that he was never going to get his homework done now, but it didn’t seem to stop him – or even slow him down – from spooning contentedly around Patton and nuzzling his face into Patton’s hair.

Virgil gave one last double-check around the room before settling down. She seemed to have actually gone.

He still left all the lights on – just in case.

**Author's Note:**

> you can also find me at [ tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors ](tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors.tumblr.com) over on tumblr!


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